We are at the thirty-third lesson in the chain of the lineage and the life story of the Rebbe Rayatz, in the third part. We stopped at the conclusion of the description of the year 5681, and from here we will continue according to the order that appears here - the year 5684. Before we read the text itself, let us begin with an introduction to this period.
We are speaking about the first period of the previous Rebbe's acceptance of the nesius. As we saw, the acceptance of the nesius took place in the middle of the year 5681, in the month of Nissan, and from then on he was engaged with tremendous mesirus nefesh in upholding Yiddishkeit throughout Russia and beyond. These were the early days of the Soviet regime, and within it operated the members of the "Yevsektzia" - the Jewish department of the regime - who destroyed and obstructed anything connected to Yiddishkeit, literally waging war. The Rebbe Rayatz, for his part, was in contact with all the cities in Russia and with the entire country regarding the establishment of chadarim, yeshivos, mikvaos, rabbanim and shochtim - everything that each and every city needed.
It is told that at a certain point, in the year 5682, nine students of the Temimim gathered, and the Rebbe Rayatz was the tenth among them, and they made a covenant among themselves and swore to give their lives for Yiddishkeit until the last drop of blood. The persecution of the Rebbe and of the chassidim was exceedingly harsh, and they gave their lives literally. There were those who asked the Rebbe: is this really what is required - to send people who do not come back? For people were sent to Siberia and were killed and murdered.
The Rebbe answered them that in the Beis Hamikdash there were various services that the kohanim performed, but there was one service on Yom Kippur - the sending of the goat to Azazel - and it is told that the man appointed to it would not complete his year and would die. Nevertheless, there were many who leapt at the chance, wanting to take on this service in the Beis Hamikdash. And if that was so in the Beis Hamikdash, said the Rebbe Rayatz, then now, in the education of children, the matter is even greater - to send Jews to mesirus nefesh.
This is evident in an interesting way when the Rebbe asked for help. Large sums of money were needed, and financial assistance was requested from the Agudas Yisroel organization in the United States. They wrote to the Rebbe that he should present them with a report - how many expenses he has, how many Torah students, how much each one costs per month - and then they would grant support.
The Rebbe wrote to them at length, and from their reply it was evident that they had no idea how things were run in Russia. He described to them the underground activity and the silence, that it is forbidden to mention a name, and where each thing was located, and what kind of mesirus nefesh was required, and how much money was needed. He specified there, in 5682 or 5683, that he needed some seven thousand dollars a month - a sum equivalent today to more than a hundred thousand dollars a month - in order to fund this whole vast network; and he told them that it was not possible for him to submit a detailed report, and if they wished to give, they should give without such itemization.
The Rebbe Rayatz traveled to Moscow for the annual meeting to review the activities, and afterward he prepared to return home. Where was the previous Rebbe living then? In Rostov, the place where the Rebbe Rashab passed away and where the acceptance of the nesius took place, and there he intended to return. On the way a messenger arrived and brought word that his mother had asked to convey that he should not come to Rostov but should turn back to Moscow, since the secret police, the GPU, were waiting for him, and immediately upon his arrival in Rostov he would be arrested.
The Rebbe Rayatz returned to Moscow and stayed there for half a year, while his wife, his daughters and his mother were in Rostov. On the eve of Pesach he returned in secret, but they detected that he had returned, and the situation was very grave. They sought to arrest him, and after great pressure they agreed to hush the matter up on condition that he leave Rostov and move.
And so the matter is described here briefly: "5684 - compelled by the Cheka" - the secret police - "through the informing of the "Yevsekim"" that is the Yevsektzia we mentioned, who caused him "to leave Rostov" this was a sort of agreement, that if he left Rostov he would not be arrested. "He settles in Petersburg and engages in upholding Torah and Yiddishkeit" - the center moved to Petersburg, the city that was later called Leningrad, and from there he worked on all matters: "rabbanim, chadarim, yeshivos, shochtim and bodkim and maggidei shiurim, and the founding of mikvaos" - all the Jewish work in the world was conducted from there.
"He founds a special committee to help those who work at handcrafts so that they will be able to keep Shabbos" every trade by which a Jew earned a living in those days was extremely problematic, since in any factory in which he would work, when Shabbos or a Yom Tov arrived there was no possibility of keeping them. Therefore the Rebbe Rayatz invested a great deal in assisting people to have their own independent work, handcrafts - that they should open weaving workshops in their homes and the like, and earn a living from them without needing to report to a manager and a boss why he did not come on Shabbos, and get entangled in that. There was a very great investment in this, to assist workers so that they would be able to work at handcrafts.
"He founds Agudas Chabad in the United States and Canada" after the end of the First World War, and particularly after the year 5681, when the troubles and decrees began in Russia, Jews began to leave Russia - not yet in masses - some to Eretz Yisroel, some to the United States and some to Europe. In the month of Cheshvan 5684 the Rebbe Rayatz wrote a letter to all the chassidim in the United States, in which he asked them to establish an association, so that they would look after one another together and would have rules and regulations and everything they needed. He also sent personal letters to certain chassidim who were involved in this, such as Rabbi Dovid Shifrin and Rabbi Eliyahu Simpson. In the book "Toldos Chabad in the United States" the whole matter is described at length, and here it is folded into one line - that in that year he founded Agudas Chabad in the United States and Canada.
The year "5687 - he founds the yeshivos in the land of Bukhara" regarding the year 5687 there is a great deal to say, and this is indeed its beginning. There was a chassid by the name of Rabbi Simcha Gorodetzky, upon whom the Rebbe Rayatz placed various missions that required him to travel to different places in Russia, and there is a whole story about how these travels saved his life from a medical standpoint. At a certain point the previous Rebbe called him and said to him: you are already married, and for a married man it is very hard to travel from place to place; and he determined that he should travel to Samarkand and be the spiritual leader of the Jews of Bukhara.
Before his departure he told the Rebbe that his wife was living in Kremenchug, and that he had heard she had given birth to a daughter, and therefore he wished to travel first to Kremenchug to see his wife and the daughter, and only afterward would he travel to Samarkand. The Rebbe said to him: "Had she given birth to a son, you would have had to travel for the bris, but this is a daughter and there is no bris. You can travel to Samarkand, and your wife and the daughter will come to you afterward. Go now, the matter is urgent, and there is not even time for trips." And he sent him off immediately on his mission, and he arrived there, in Bukhara.
There he established, as is told, a large Talmud Torah called "Tiferes Bachurim", which developed over time into an institution of a thousand children and many melamdim. All of this is the founding of the yeshivos in Bukhara, which appears here in one line, and there were many episodes surrounding the matter. The continuation will come, with Hashem's help.